The Fleet's In!
Automotive Fleet has published their mid-year report of fleet sales, and there are a few surprises to be found. The Crown Vic's place at the top of the list (94.2 percent of sales to fleets) is not one of them. Nor will anyone gasp at the Sebring's (69.9 percent of convertibles and 62.2 percent of sedans) and Avenger's (65.5 percent) rankings. However, the stats show that 56.6 percent of Dodge Calibers went to fleets, as did 49.9 percent of Chevy Impalas. The highest import nameplate: the Mazda6 (59.5 percent) followed by the Suzuki XL7 (53.2 percent) and, believe it or not, the Volvo S40 (48.9 percent). Brands you'd think were naturals for fleets like Hyundai and Kia placed below the 50 percent level. Overall, 21.8 percent of the cars and 20.8 percent of the trucks sold the first half of this year went to fleets. As overall sales drop and inventory builds up, that number will probably grow for the second half. We'll offer a more detailed analysis of fleet sales soon. [Thanks to NoSubstitute for the link]
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I understand that there's a "fleet-only" Malibu with a pushrod V6/4spd auto. Has anyone been given a 4cyl Malibu as a rental? IIRC, the 4cyl 'Bu was NOT to be sold to rental companies; but I wonder if GM reneged on that policy.
@shaker: If it's like before, then the previous generation Malibu became the "Malibu Classic" and absorbs the vast majority of fleet sales, to the newer version doesn't have to.
Ah! Thanks, CarShark!
CarShark is right--there is a 2008 old style Malibu that's badged a "classic". Since there's no Classic model in the Fleet sales sheet, I bet they included those sales with the Malibu